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 DANCING AND THE DRAMA EAST 
 AND WEST BY STELLA BLOCH WITH 
 AN INTRODUCTION BY ANANDA 
 COOMARASWAMY 
 
 ORIENTALIA, NEW YORK, 1922
 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 OWHERE is the genius of the East 
 more clearly manifested than in the 
 theatre* Miss Bloch, who is herself a 
 trained dancer, speaks with authority on 
 what she has seen in the East, and it is remarkable 
 that almost every one of her observations could be 
 justified by reference to chapter and verse of the 
 technical literature* 
 
 The comparison of Eastern art with science is like- 
 wise well-considered: for like the scientist, the 
 Oriental craftsman aims at explicit demonstration 
 rather than elegant procedure, and the intrusion 
 of personal taste is to be avoided in art as the 
 intrusion of personal bias is avoided in science* 
 In setting forth the stories of heroes, or making 
 the images of gods the Asiatic craftsman has no 
 thought of artf as we now understand the word* 
 The primary qualification demanded of him was 
 obedience: he was not required to be a creature 
 of moods, but to know his trade* Not that the 
 factor of devotion to the theme is excluded: on the 
 contrary, without such devotion, nothing can bs 
 
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 V done: but that the theme is infinitely greater than 
 the man* 
 
 I 
 
 Oriental art, moreover, is not an escape from life, 
 nor an interpretation of life having any peculiar 
 tendency: it is a part of life itself in the same sense 
 as the art of preparing a meal or designing a motor 
 car. It is thus entirely without affectation and se- 
 curely founded in real experience. 
 
 The art of modem Europe has no such inner 
 necessity. At the best, its various expressions, as 
 Professor Lethaby has remarked, are but one man 
 deep. Behind the Asiatic craftsman stands the race, 
 precisely as behind the CathoKc priest there stands 
 the Church. Hence the power, a like of the Oriental 
 culture and the Catholic tradition. Under these 
 conditions art has existed from time immemorial as 
 an essence recognizable in every practical human 
 activity — all the arts, in fact, are useful, and none 
 is practised as an end in itself. 
 
 *Tine Art," on the contrary, is a refinement upon 
 life, and by no means inherent in life itself — ^if it 
 were otherwise it would be apparent in our streets.
 
 L 
 
 our costume, kitchen utensils, churches, and depart- 
 ment stores* We have learnt to speak of *'art for 
 art's sake,'' and to leave it out of our daily life, pre- 
 cisely as we make of religion a Sunday observ- 
 ance, and leave it out of our banking and mak- 
 ing Iove« 
 
 Miss Bloch's discussion of the Asiatic theatre, un- 
 compromising as it may appear to those who arc 
 attached to their illusions of the Mysterious East, 
 shows that she has grasped the underlying prin- 
 ciples of Asiatic cultures and understands their 
 well-proportioned architecture: these civilizations, 
 with their arts, are as well and directly fitted to the 
 needs of humanity as the form of a flower to the 
 needs of reproduction* Nominally an essay on the 
 theatre, this is something more than a discussion of 
 Oriental dancing: it is an introduction to the theory 
 of Asiatic civilisation* 
 
 ANANDA COOMARASWAMY* 
 
 Museum of Fine Arts, 
 Boston, December, 1921.
 
 THE IDEAL DRAMA 
 
 T is only at the height of a culture that 
 the architecture of true drama uplifts 
 itself; at the moment when temples are 
 built and the epic arises; when life is 
 seen in legends and these legends become symbols 
 and the symbols are carved on stones, and the stones 
 built into a palace for the king or the gods* It is 
 then that the walls of a temple are the manuscript 
 of life itself* The epic rushes through the lips of 
 every bard and none intrudes a personal grace upon 
 the divine parable* 
 
 Sacrifices and rites are performed according to 
 formalities laid down by the gods themselves* It 
 is in this devout spirit that the carver learns the 
 craft of image-making, the singer prays, and the 
 philosopher expounds the great principle* It is in 
 this spirit that the actor advances upon the stage, 
 his whole constitution inspired by faith in the ac- 
 tion which he shall take part in unfolding* 
 
 For the dramatist, as for all other craftsmen, the 
 theme is already fixed and only calls for orches- 
 
 /
 
 \X 
 
 / 
 
 '■■J 
 
 tration: the manner of its presentation is a tradi- 
 tion, and his function Kes in directing the players 
 according to that lore which accompanies the per- 
 formance of the epic. His work is that of one, who 
 in obedience to an architect, supervises the build- 
 ing of a house and indicates to the workmen every 
 detail of procedure* Whence arises the superstition 
 that a plot merely set down in words to be spoken is 
 drama? The drama has no reserves and makes 
 use of every human device of expression* All the 
 arts are in its service. The dramatist must be 
 learned in the use and combination of these accord- 
 ing to the severe laws set down by the gods. 
 
 It is for the multifarious expressions of The Great 
 Tale that the theatre exists: for the human pres- 
 entation of the adventures of gods and great men. 
 No imitation of everyday life shall be represented 
 here— only the doings of divinities. Therefore the 
 drama is never spoken in prose, nor is it realistic 
 in gesture: it is always danced and sung that the 
 manners of gods and heroes may be distinguished. 
 
 The actor's training is one which fits him to obey.
 
 He has no need for gifts — passion, insight or fudg- 
 ment* From childhood he is trained in traditional 
 gestures, song, and other means of expression in 
 infinite combination, that he may be prepared for 
 the directions of the dramatist* How far from his 
 mind to add to, or enhance a movement! For him 
 every minutest step has been fixed by a law supe- 
 rior to humanity itself, how much farther from 
 individual contrivance! 
 
 To the community the drama is familiar as are the 
 words of their prayers, and the manner of its pres- 
 entation never varies* An audience to such a per- 
 formance does not gather for purposes of enjoyment 
 or stimulation, but out of a need to look upon life 
 without prejudice or passion. The drama is a ritej^ 
 not a (^version, a concentration upon life, and not a 
 distraction from it« 
 
 n 
 
 In the light of such a definition of the theatre, 
 Europe cannot claim to a suspicion of the true 
 drama. Hers is a destiny that heaves and surges 
 on the unsteady tide of individual contrivance. 
 
 -.v^
 
 Europe is the domain of Art and the whole activ- 
 ity surrounding the drama is something utterly out- 
 side of Art: for Art is in its essence and culmina- 
 tion an interpretation of life and subject to the 
 prejudice of the individual artist — ^but the Drama is 
 life itself speaking through the crafts and by means 
 of a whole inspired race. The individual interprets 
 life and produces Art — a race accepts life and creates 
 new forms of Life. 
 
 Perhaps the most serious effort put forth on the 
 modem European stage is that of Isadora Duncan 
 in the training of her six pupils. But this school 
 has achieved something far different from the intent 
 that began it. Here are six girls chosen in child- 
 hood for beauty and talent, trained in the art of 
 movement and expression according to the prece- 
 dent of their master. They were brought together 
 and disciplined for the purpose of fulfilling a chorus 
 to Isadora's leadership. They were to respond to 
 her gesture unanimously as the grasses of the 
 meadow sway to the wind. It would have been 
 an architecture like that of the Greek drama. But 
 such things are not achieved by deliberation, how-
 
 Isadora Duncan
 
 ever profound — ^nor are they the fruit of individual 
 endeavor, and Isadora's six girls, instead of moving 
 as one according to classic principle, are marvel- 
 ously versed in the art of self-expression and each 
 is self-conscious of her own special grace. There 
 is no finer flower of the glorious adolescence of 
 European culture? but how like a mirage is this 
 romanticism beside the power where immortal gods 
 order the Arts! 
 
 Lesser than romantic are the efforts of the Art 
 Theatres, Here cynicism and idealism find every 
 refinement of expression* To caricature and to 
 idealize are both disparaging interpretations of 
 reality, and produce the powerful evil — realism. 
 They, in the service of this master, seek to repro- 
 duce the surface of life — thinking effect to be the 
 highest achievement of man and powerful as life 
 itself. To them one theme is as worthy as another 
 for significant presentation, in that life is every- 
 where. But who can speak divine prayers to a 
 god to whom he is not pledged by the strongest 
 devotion? To the world the theme may mean 
 nothing, but to the artist it must be all things before
 
 his lips can utter a moving verse. The art theatres 
 of Europs are rich in talent and serious effort, but 
 they revolve about a dark sun* What play is to a 
 group of players what the Christian legend was to 
 the Italian painters? It is no spiritual impulse that 
 dictates the scrupulous realistic performances of an 
 art theatre — ^it is rather the desire of the materialist 
 for greater refinements. All the virtue in such per- 
 formances, from the playwright's composition to 
 the actor's speech, is dependent on the virtue 
 within each separate personality concerned, and 
 such virtue is as uncertain, as infrequent, as genius. 
 
 What is the European theatre to its audience? 
 Sweets, bitters, relaxation, excitement, the com- 
 forter of its fears and doubts, the outlet of its thou- 
 sand extraneous energies, the expression of every 
 functional, social, and spiritual disorder of the com- 
 munity. Thus it is a river of impurity j though in 
 the hands of geniuses it may be touched with light, 
 for the genius, an apparition of aspiring humanity, 
 indicates the distant perfection. 
 
 u^
 
 China
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 THE THEATRE IN THE EAST 
 
 N the East the theatre even now pre- 
 serves much of its ancient tradition. 
 The structure and wisdom here so 
 powerfully evident prove beyond ques- 
 tion that the unanimous spiritual activity of a whole 
 race produces forms as irrefutable as perfect en- 
 gineering: beside which the slight and peculiar edi- 
 fices of Art, the individual's aspiration, tremble on 
 a most arbitrary foundation. 
 
 The Eastern actor is such by caste and heredity, 
 and he enters upon his education in early child- 
 hood: it includes all the arts of speech, song and 
 dance, since the drama makes use of these, and the 
 actor must therefore also be dancer and singer* 
 
 The language of the dance is as fixed and search- 
 ing as the spoken language of the race* Just as the 
 writer does not invent words, so the dancer does not 
 invent gestures: he does not compose the dance, or 
 in any way affect its scheme, which has been ex- 
 pounded in the Scriptures* Here nothing is re- 
 quired of the dancer but physical obedience: how-
 
 ever heated a scene, every quiver of the hand, and 
 the subtlest facial expressions are the result of obe- 
 dience to precise rules. The actor never steps into 
 his part and feels it for himself: such an intrusion 
 of personality would at once mar the spectacular 
 and rhythmic character of the performance* Hence 
 the unassailable poise of the Oriental actor, who is 
 cool and impersonal in the midst of the most pas- 
 sionate action: expressing whatever is required 
 without consuming his own soul by emotion, he is 
 inexhaustible. 
 
 The Eastern theatre exists for the great drama, the 
 epic peculiar to each race, which contains within 
 itself the law that it be spoken, sung and danced in 
 / public for the spiritual enlightenment of the com- 
 ^ munity. The players regard themselves as mes- 
 sengers for the clear and correct delivery of a divine 
 word. In India, the actor who starts his perform- 
 ance without having prayed is condemned in the 
 scripture as 'Vulgar,'' and the audience witnessing 
 such sacrilegious exhibitions falls under a heavy 
 curse. 
 
 It is not for the acquisition of special graces and 
 
 8
 
 facility that the dancer studies all his life: it is for 
 a knowledge of the enormous literature of his voca- 
 tion« From childhood the epic is his sole spiritual 
 and practical education, and in thus fixing directly 
 on the source and goal of his task, he achieves 
 mastery without effort — as a bird learns flight. 
 Thus it is possible for children as young as eight 
 or nine years to demean themselves on the stage 
 with the authority and power of sages, to perform 
 their parts in every way perfectly, so that no one 
 can for an instant consider them "children/' This 
 is not rare in China, and such cases are not re- 
 garded as precocious or extraordinary anywhere 
 in the East, It may be said that every actor-dancer 
 in an Eastern community has a control of his 
 medium that would put to shame the technique 
 of the one or two heralded talents that spring up 
 in a century of the European theatre* 
 
 In India or China the multiplication table and 
 books of philosophy can be danced. For here the 
 theatre has a vocabulary embracing every conceiv- 
 able form of thought. In a system so highly 
 evolved, it is impossible for a stranger to read the 
 meaning behind the symbolization. For example, 
 
 9
 
 a Qiinese performance is so essentially formal that 
 the movement of the plot cannot be detected by the 
 stranger, nor can he know what emotions are being 
 nor can he know what emotions are being ex- 
 pressed. The slight movement of a finger may be 
 a sign of great passion or indication of a whole 
 train of events important to the story. This is 
 more or less so throughout the East, and it is often 
 only by the superb calm vigor of an actor's man- 
 ner that one senses how solemn an inspiration lies 
 behind his performance. ^ 
 
 That Oriental dancing and pantomime which find 
 such extravagant patronage on the Western stage 
 is the most grotesque misconstruction of the true 
 thing. Whatever is personal, sexual and gaudy 
 has a fitting expression in the sinuous gyration of 
 the ''Oriental dancer." Moreover, so little resem- 
 blance does it bear to anything Eastern that one 
 wonders how it got its name. Where there is 
 religious background and philosophic structure in the 
 Eastern performance, there is here a blind ambi- 
 tion for effect: the certainty and masterly grace of 
 
 the Eastern dancer, who forgets herself entirely in 
 
 to
 
 Java
 
 Java
 
 Cambodia
 
 ■i 
 
 Cambodia
 
 the meanings she embodies, are here replaced by 
 vague undulations and a calculated enhancement of 
 the body and its peculiar style of action. In these 
 realms the highest virtue is a detached and special 
 decorative sense, a flair for design in rhythm, color 
 and line, and such a talent is the root and flower of 
 personality. But even tliis, and genius, are idols 
 that are made out of a strong egoism and can never 
 attain to that pure energy which is the fruit of the 
 profoundest selflessness* 
 
 The Ramayana and Mahabharata arc the inex- 
 haustible springs of light which have for centuries 
 illumined the life of India. These epics reveal 
 every worldly and spiritual experience possible to 
 man, through the sublimest imagery. The modem 
 Indian Nautch relates the adventures and activities 
 of Krishna, and is a dance highly philosophic in 
 essence and esoteric in form. 
 
 The Javanese theatre is almost wholly built on 
 Indian tradition and makes use of the Indian epics. 
 But here the theatre is not so severely a sign lan- 
 guage, and emotions and actions may be recognized 
 by reason of the greater expressiveness of the ges- 
 
 n
 
 tures employed. In the shadow theatre of Java 
 there exists a form of drama in its finest purity. 
 Here one discovers the keynote to the essential 
 behavior of every Oriental actor — the submissive- 
 ness and complete impersonality of a puppet. In- 
 deed, it is his conscious wish to be a puppet in the. 
 hands of a divine overlord. While the shadow 
 show achieves the splendor and grip of a living 
 thing, the human dancer is true to his part, 
 and infallible as a well managed puppet. In such 
 a state of mind it needs neither thought nor effort 
 to respond to the demands made upon him, how- 
 ever severe and complicated. 
 
 In Cambodia it is quite possible for the stranger to 
 follow a story told in the theatre. The f^hting of 
 a battle is performed by a fencing of swords, and 
 the love of hero and heroine is easily read in their 
 gestures, looks and tones. 
 
 Bali has a kind of pantomime more akin to pure 
 dancing than elsewhere in the East. Here are seen 
 child dancers highly brilliant and supple in move- 
 ment. Trained from the age of seven to twelve, 
 these little girls then dance in the theatre till they are 
 
 J2
 
 Bali
 
 sixteen, after which they are relegated to the palace 
 of their local prince, and thenceforth never seen again 
 in public* In their short course of study they achieve 
 a skill that is most astounding — and again, it it 
 obvious that such skill cannot be acquired by delib- 
 erate practice, but falls naturally into the hands of 
 those who are devoted to a high and fixed spiritual 
 ideal* 
 
 It is not for skilful execution that the scientist labors, 
 yet the products of science are by far more finished 
 in every case than the work of the greatest and 
 most painstaking artist* For in devotion to a 
 super-personal and superhuman theme, the grace 
 of Nature herself may be acquired, but in the 
 search for a personal and human grace nothing 
 can accrue but our own limitations* 
 
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